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George Young, the former long-time general manager for the New York Giants, once likened his preference in NFL players to the marines: The younger the better.

Keep that in mind when you hear teams lament having to play rookies or second-year pros. For while there is a downside, namely that they don't have the backlog of snaps embedded in their brains and central nervous systems of more veteran players, they come with significant advantages as well: They're faster and quicker, and more easily molded and motivated.

Their physical advantages are in part the resiliency of youth and shorter ...